12 months later Grealish has yet to play for his country and his hopes of doing so must be as distant as ever.

Grealish failed to build on a promising emergence at Aston Villa under Tim Sherwood in the second half of the 2014/15 season as he made just 9 starts in Villa’s dismal relegation campaign the following season.

His £20,000 weekly wage means a fine of £50,000 will be little deterrent to Grealish, who was it must be said celebrating his birthday on the night after a match, but his latest misdemeanour comes at a damaging time.

Chinese billionaire Xia sanctioned almost £50 million worth of spending in the summer as he aims to take the club back to the Premier League and the last thing he would want is for fissures to start appearing in the discipline of Di Matteo’s squad.

Despite off-field issues, Grealish has been one of Aston Villa’s few bright sparks alongside McCormack.

Villa made a big statement by forking out £12 million to sign McCormack from Fulham whilst Jonathan Kodjia arrives to similar fanfare after netting 20 goals in all competitions last season for Bristol City.

The powerful and quick Ivorian has made a welcome impact, opening his account in only his second match, a curling strike against Rotherham that was cancelled out by a late equaliser.

That was the third instance this season in which Villa have dropped points from winning positions in the dying embers of a match and, with one of his star players allegedly at an all-night party that once again included laughing gas, Di Matteo will find accusations of a fitness issue difficult to shake off.